Edgar Ospina — From Pain, Passion & Rubbing Up on the Latin American stage to How to Become a Saint at Central Saint Martyrs

This project provides spectators with a backstage tour of the muscles, sweat and politics that is the world of Lucha Libre. This journey is divided into three video segments:

In Pain, Passion and Rubbing Up on the Latin-American Stage, three aspects come into focus: First, the theatrical side of Lucha Libre as argued in Barthes’ “The World of Wrestling” (1957). Second, the notions of pain and suffering in Lucha Libre in connection with that of the Catholic Church. Third, the homoerotic connotation of two macho buddies playing rude guys and rubbing up their half-naked bodies in a synchronised choreography.

With Threesome with Me, Myself & my Inner Buddy, narcissism as a motivation for the wrestler is deconstructed, as self-adoration and hedonism stimulates fantasies of Saint-hood.

How to Become a Saint at Central Saint Martyrs is the guide that a person, in this case, the narcissist wrestler must take to become a Saint at the Catholic Church.

Lucha Libre is part of the Latin-American idiosyncrasy derived from the concept of the "Latin-American Macho", displaying outstanding contradictions and tensions of power within the social, sexual, political, and religious spectrum in the region.